A fascinating transformation of silver from sheet to beaker, masterfully hand-raised by a professional silversmith.

The film shows the process of hand-raising a silver beaker. Starting by marking out the blank of silver, the silversmith then cuts the circle out using two different methods: first with hand shears and then with a bench-mounted guillotine. The next process is blocking out the disc by hammering the metal from the outside edge using a blocking hammer onto a wooden tree trunk. After each course of hammering, the silver has to be softened by annealing, which is done by heating it to a dull red heat then letting it cool before putting into a diluted solution of sulphuric acid to remove any copper oxide that forms on the surface of the metal (an alloy of 925 parts silver to 75 parts copper). Once a shallow bowl has been produced, it can now be hammered from the outside using a raising hammer onto a steel raising stake. To thicken the top edge, the raising is also hammered on its edge using the raising hammer - this is called caulking. The process is repeated until the desired size is achieved. The surface of the beaker then has to be smoothed by planishing, which is achieved by using a planishing hammer that has a polished flat head, onto a finishing stake.

This film is from The Goldsmiths' Company Library, a member of the London's Screen Archives Network. The silversmith demonstrating the hand raising process is Dennis Smith (www.smithandharris.com). He has been a lecturer at The London Metropolitan University’s Silversmithing and Jewellery department.